When delivery orders are slow, photos are one part of the menu worth checking. Price, availability, delivery time, reviews and demand matter too. Start by making sure each image clearly represents the item a customer will receive.

Look at your menu on a phone. Can you recognise each dish at thumbnail size? Check whether the crop hides ingredients, the lighting changes its colour or the photo shows extras that are not included.

This is a guide to doing it properly. I will give you everything you need to shoot your own menu, then I will be honest about where it gets hard.

Make the thumbnail easy to understand

A useful thumbnail shows the dish, its main ingredients and a realistic portion. It should help someone understand the item alongside its name, description and price.

The steps below focus on those qualities. Measure the effect of any menu changes in your own account instead of assuming a percentage sales lift.

Shoot in natural window light, not under the lights

Start by checking the light. Turn off the kitchen lights and move your dish next to a window. Daylight is soft, it shows the real colour of the food, and it does not throw the orange or green cast that ceiling lights do. Compare the same dish in both places and choose the light that shows its colour and texture clearly.

Mornings or early afternoon are best, when the light is bright but not harsh. If the sun is hammering straight in and casting hard shadows, tape a sheet of baking paper over the window to diffuse it. Brisbane light is strong, so most days you will have more than enough.

One rule: never use the phone flash. Ever. It flattens the food and kills the texture.

Two angles, and when to use each

You only need two.

  • The 45-degree angle is your default. Shoot the dish roughly as you would see it sitting down at the table. This works for almost everything with height: burgers, stacked pancakes, a bowl of ramen, a loaded parma. It shows depth and makes the food feel like it is right in front of you.
  • Top-down (flat lay) is for flat or wide things: pizza, a spread of share plates, a poke bowl, a coffee with latte art. Stand directly over it and shoot straight down.

Pick the angle that suits the dish, then commit to it. Do not photograph half your menu from one height and half from another.

Consistency is what makes a menu look trustworthy

Here is the part most venues miss. A single nice photo is not the goal. A menu that looks like it was all shot by the same person, on the same day, in the same spot, is the goal.

A consistent background, framing and light make dishes easier to compare. Keep the food as the subject. A mixture of extreme crops, different colour casts and unrelated props can make the menu harder to read.

So lock in your setup. Same surface, same distance, same angle for similar dishes, same light. Then keep it.

Plan a repeatable menu session

A single session makes consistency easier, but it is not the only option. If you need several sessions, save a reference image and note the surface, camera position and lighting setup so you can reproduce them.

Get your hero items right first. You know which three or four dishes carry your delivery orders. Shoot those before anything else, while the light is best and before you get tired and start cutting corners. Those are the photos doing the heavy lifting, so they deserve your sharpest attention.

Check the platform requirements before exporting

Both apps have real technical requirements, and getting them wrong means your photos get rejected and you wait again.

For Uber Eats, the official guide recommends a 5:4 to 6:4 ratio. It lists JPG, PNG or GIF files up to 10 MB, with width 550 to 10,000 pixels and height 440 to 10,000 pixels. Keep the dish centred and accurately represented. Check Uber's menu photo guidelines before uploading.

DoorDash lists landscape 16:9 item photos with a minimum of 1400 x 800 pixels in its photo rejection guide. That page gives different file-size limits in different sections, so check the limit shown in your Merchant Portal rather than relying on a single number here. Its public help page is US-labelled; follow any requirements shown for your Australian account.

These official pages were checked on 8 September 2026. Requirements can change, and item photos differ from store headers and logos.

A few more practical realities:

  • Allow time for review. Check the upload status in your account and leave room for corrections before a menu launch.
  • Show what is included. Use the actual dish and serving size. Keep unrelated items, added text and watermarks out of the frame.
  • Keep an original file. Export a separate crop for each platform and check that the dish still fits without stretching the image.
  • Use your own food photos. Check that you have the rights to publish them.

Where this gets hard on a phone

Everything above is doable. People shoot solid phone photos every day. But notice what a proper job actually involves: clearing time, controlling the light, plating all thirty items, holding one consistent setup across the lot, nailing the hero dishes, then cropping each photo to two different specs and waiting on approval.

Between services, the kitchen and available light can change quickly. If you keep getting interrupted, reduce the shot list and schedule another matched session. Keep a reference image so the next batch has a clear target.

Allow time for plating, shooting and checking each image before the dish is cleared. A larger menu may need several sessions or controlled lighting. Plan around the kitchen's capacity rather than promising a full menu in a fixed number of hours.

If you would rather not do it yourself

That is the gap I fill. I am a one-person studio in Brisbane shooting food and drink for cafes and small venues, so it is just me on the day and the setup stays consistent from the first plate to the last.

The free Palate Check reviews your existing pages and food photos and suggests a first fix. If you already need a shoot, you can ask about Pro Stills directly: fifteen retouched mirrorless photos, with the required placements agreed before shooting. See the service details for reels and ongoing content.

You can start with three priority dishes. Shoot them in suitable light, check the crops against the current platform requirements, then compare the public menu with your originals after approval.